Green earth (company)
| Green Earth GmbH
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1983 |
| Seat | Scharnstein , Austria |
| management | Reinhard Kepplinger, Kuno Haas, Andreas Lechner, Fritz Mayr-Kern, Thomas Svoboda |
| Number of employees | just under 400 |
| sales | 50 million euros (financial year 2017/18) |
| Branch | Furniture , natural textiles , home textiles , natural cosmetics , mail order , retail |
| Website | www.grueneerde.com |
Grüne Erde GmbH ( Green Earth for short ) is an Austrian company based in Scharnstein im Almtal in Upper Austria , which specializes in the manufacture and trade of ecological, sustainable and socially fair products. The company currently operates three of its own production facilities in Austria and 14 shops in Austria and Germany .
The range of Grüne Erde includes around 5,300 products and is divided into the areas of living and sleeping ( furniture , mattresses , sleeping and home textiles ), ecological fashion and natural cosmetics .
history
The company was founded in 1983 by Karl Kammerhofer in Scharnstein in the Upper Austrian Almtal. As a member of the young green alternative movement, he strove for an alternative, ecological and social form of business.
In 1993, Kammerhofer handed the company over to Reinhard Kepplinger and his college friend Kuno Haas. The two have been managing the company since then.
In December 1994, the company moved into its current corporate headquarters, the former sickle forge of the Redtenbacher works, known as the screw house, in the center of Scharnstein. In 1999, the two historic neighboring buildings were bought by Grüne Erde, renovated and used as offices and sales rooms.
Today, Grüne Erde has almost 400 employees, around 80 percent of whom are women. The annual turnover in the 2014/15 financial year is 39.7 million euros.
Assortment and sales
The first product in 1983 was the handmade natural mattress "White Cloud". Over the years, the range has been successively expanded: first to include beds and bed linen, then furniture as well as living and cooking accessories, from 2002 natural cosmetics and from 2010 finally ecological fashion . The products are sold exclusively via catalogs, the 14 Grüne Erde shops in Germany and Austria and - since 2000 - via its own homepage.
Corporate philosophy
According to its own statements, Grüne Erde uses “only natural, renewable raw materials, consistently avoiding petrochemical plastics and genetically modified substances”. The company has been GOTS certified since 2010 , the natural cosmetics carry the Natrue seal of approval and all mattresses carry the QUL seal.
In March 2015, the company said goodbye to the social networks Facebook , Google+ and Twitter with reference to data protection and its philosophy . In addition, Green Earth says it does not use Google Analytics , external tracking pixels or remarketing when programming its homepage in order to guarantee the security of customer data.
Crowdfunding
In May 2013, based on the example of Heini Staudinger and GEA, the company launched the crowdfunding participation model in order to circumvent bank lending made more difficult by Basel III . By February 2015, Grüne Erde has collected around 7.7 million euros in the form of subordinated loans - according to its own information, it is the “most successful crowdfunding model in Austria”.
Awards
The company has repeatedly received awards for its product design, ecological and social commitment, including the Green Product Award 2015, the Company Social Award 2014, the Upper Austrian State Recognition Award for Environment and Sustainability 2014, the ineo of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce for exemplary apprenticeship training in 2013 or the Red Dot Design Award 2010.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Green Earth increases sales and profits In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten
- ↑ Success with mattresses, cosmetics and furniture. In: Upper Austrian news
- ↑ www.grueneerde.com - How it all began. ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www.grueneerde.com - Branch Offices ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Green Earth increases sales and profits In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten
- ↑ www.grueneerde.com: About us ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www.grueneerde.com - Certifications
- ↑ Against the trend: A manufacturer of natural products is leaving social media ( memento of the original from April 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Heise
- ↑ Self-employed in the credit crunch In: Der Standard
- ↑ Financing In: Finance Magazin
- ↑ Green Earth raises € 7.7 million through crowdfunding. ( Memento from February 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wirtschaftsblatt
- ↑ Green Product Awards - Winner 2015 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www.grueneerde.com - Awards ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
